My question concerns passports. We are coming into the holiday period and I acknowledge there are huge concerns every year at this time. I refer to cases where people book their holidays and then find out they have no passports. Could legislation be brought in whereby people would be required to show their passport before they book their holidays? I was hoping the Tánaiste would be here to answer the question. This affects quite a number of people. There is quite a lot of work being done by the Passport Office, and I must acknowledge the wonderful work it is doing, with a current backlog of something in the region of 70,000 passports. There are a lot of people who are concerned, through their own fault, because they did not check their passports in advance of booking their holidays.

I know this issue has been a huge one. Certainly it has been a big one in my constituency office, and I am sure it has been so for others as well. I do not think the solution to this is legislation. The solution to this is getting through the backlog. The Passport Office lost a number of days because of the adverse weather, but I understand that it is catching up. Legislation or no legislation, it is always a good idea for people to make sure that their documents are in date.